


Portrait of a Boy

by orphan_account



Category: Various Movies
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Gen, fair warning, four months before the movie comes out, here i am with fic, i tried for cute, off screen character death, the average lifespan of beagles is 13 to 15 years, there's a really angsty bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 14:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The early life and times of Sherman Peabody in short scenes at various ages.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Portrait of a Boy

Your name is Sherman and you are four years old. You live in a big house on top of an even bigger building with just your daddy. Except you don’t call him that. He’s ‘Mr. Peabody’ to everyone, and that includes you. He told you why once but he used a lot of big words like degrading and nomenclature and you didn't really understand. But you didn’t want to disappoint him, so when Mr. Peabody asked you if you understood, you nodnodnoded and he smiled, very proud, and tucked you into your dinosaur sheets for bed.  
Sometimes you think you can remember not being with Mr. Peabody. Those memories are really fuzzy, but you can remember being scared and crying a lot. You don’t cry so much anymore, cause you’re a big boy now and big boys don’t cry. When he’s feeling ‘party-cally nosetailgick’ or if you ask him, Mr. Peabody will tell you stories about when he first adopted you, about how you cried and cried the first couple days, how once you figured out this was home you barely cried at all, always laughing and getting into something. When he tells you that, he’ll get a look on his face and look at you like ‘that much hasn’t changed, has it Sherman?’ And it’s true. You’re rarely anything but happy here, with lots of toys and doodads to play with, and Mr. Peabody teaching you everything you’ll ever need to know.  
Life is perfect.  
~  
Your name is Sherman Peabody and you are six years old. You’ve just started school, and it’s been a disaster.  
This girl, Penny, made fun of you and called you a dog. In response, you bit her. Looking back, you guess being called a dog’s not SO bad. Mr. Peabody’s a beagle, after all. Kids looked at you funny when you told them that THE Mr. Peabody was technically your dad, even if he won’t let you call him that. You had expected to be hailed as a celebrity, but now you think it’s just going to bring a lot of trouble.  
~  
Your name is Sherman Peabody and you are ten years old. You've travel through time, survived elementary school, and become best friends with your former worst enemy. You’ve accomplished quite a bit, to say the least. People hail you as a prodigy, say you are truly your father’s son, that you’ll be just the kind of man that he is dog.  
If you’re so smart, why can’t you figure out how to ask a girl out?  
Her name is Ophelia and she just moved from Montreal. She has perfect hair and a rapier wit and has joined in your circle of friends, consisting of you and Penny and this kid you play Pokémon with, Richard. You want to ask her to go with you to the school’s annual ‘Farewell Fifth-Graders’ dance. Richard told you to give her one of those scorpion suckers they sell, because girls are creepy and like that stuff, right? Penny hit him in the head and told you to do something romantic and then threatened you to not mess this up. Richard’s cool older brother Donny told you to let him do you up one morning and you’d be covered in women, but you only want one girl, not all of them. Dad told you not to worry about it, just to ask her and hope for the best. Like that would even work.  
They were no help at all. You got her the sucker, but she’s allergic to cherry. You brought her flowers, as per Penny’s request, but your face got stung by bees and you had to go to the nurse’s office. Donny’s pomade and cologne made you smell really bad, and you had to shower for Gym first thing anyway.  
So you try it Dad’s way. She says yes. It’s the most perfect night of your life.  
Until her parents take you home, and just as you’re getting out of the car, Ophelia tells you she’s glad she went with you, because you’re one of her best friends and she didn’t want to make it weird and have gone with someone who wanted to date her. You choke out a response and race up the stairs and into your room and don’t plan on ever leaving ever again. Penny laughs when you tell her about it the next day.  
~  
Your name is Sherman Peabody and you’ve just become an orphan for the second time in your sixteen years of life.  
It was cancer that killed him, but you think the pure degradation of being treated like any other ordinary dog had something to do with it. The vet would ask you all the questions, give you all the paperwork, as if he was your pet and not your father! The both of you tried to explain the situation to the daft woman multiple times, but she would just look at you like you were a child, thinking too much about a stupid mutt. Penny went with you, she had a car and most days Dad didn’t feel up to driving the scooter. She told you that was how they treated her grandma in the nursing home. An award winning biographer, treated as less than a child because she was ill. That kind of behavior is everywhere, Sherman. There’s nothing we can do.  
The funeral was a grand affair. Every lawmaker, president, official of any kind that knew and respected him was there. You used the waybak to bring DaVinci, Robspierre, all of his friends and compatriots from your trips to the past. No one questioned these figures from history being at the funeral. If anyone could have invented time travel, they said, it would be Mr. Peabody.  
Penny stayed by your side the entire time. She fought off reporters and the paparazzi like a pro. Ricky and Donnie ‘worked security,’ keeping close to you at all times, keeping people from trying to do anything untoward. Ophelia flanked your other side, holding onto you, reminding you with her presence that you would survive this. You couldn’t be more grateful for your awesome friends.  
You’re alone in that house. CPS wanted to take you out of there, put you in foster care or a group home. But when your godfather’s the former President of the United States, things tend to go more in the direction of your way. A year ago, you would have loved to have the house to yourself. You would have thrown parties and not cleaned up after yourself until dad was almost home. Now that just seems disgraceful. You keep everything as it was when he died, dusting and vacuuming once a week, just like he did. But you don’t do it with the same verve he did. There’s no life in your actions, just listless moving, an essential zombie.  
Penny calls or stops by every day that first month. By the end of the second she’s practically moved in. Day by day you gain a little more spark in your eyes, a little more spring in your step. You’ll never be the same as you were, but you’re happy again, thanks to Penny.  
You think you might love her.  
~  
Your name is Penny Peterson-Peabody and you just married the love of your life at twenty four.  
The wedding was beautiful. You wore a dress designed by Madeline Vionette specifically for you. Everyone you have ever met was there it seemed, from Ophelia your best friend and maid of honour to Leonardo DaVinci, who all but demanded to do the portraiture of the wedding party. All the women in your family told you before the wedding, ‘it’s ok to be nervous; every bride is.’ But you weren’t. Still aren’t. Why should you be?  
After all, you’re married to the greatest man you’ve ever known.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure at least the first two scenes will be disproven by the time the movie comes out, but really just whatever. I stayed out of the movie itself for the most part for that reason. 
> 
> I was thinking this weekend, Mr. Peabody's a beagle. Beagles don't live that long. I ran with it.


End file.
